Deep-sea sharks recently discovered by scientists in the Atlantic Ocean were identified as an unknown species older than dinosaurs.

Deep-sea sharks recently discovered by scientists in the Atlantic Ocean were identified as an unknown species older than dinosaurs.

After conducting a complete genetic analysis of sharks in the Atlantic, scientists have discovered that these creatures differ from native sharks in the Indian and Pacific oceans and therefore should be classified as a different species.

“We have shown that sixgill sharks in the Atlantic are actually very different from those in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific at a molecular level. Obviously they are a different species, even though they look very similar to the naked eye,” said the assistant professor from Florida Tech’s biological sciences, Daly Engel, quoted by the university’s official news website.

Sixgill sharks are a genus of deep-sea sharks that live thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean.

These creatures are among the oldest of Earth’s inhabitants, with ancestors dating back 250 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs came.